The Velvet Club.

Lucy dashed straight to the garage to get her car but knowing she was too disoriented at the time to drive, she left without taking it.

The city night wrapped around her, neon lights flickering against the wet pavement. Lucy pulled her phone from her coat pocket, her fingers trembling with a mix of rage and adrenaline. She scrolled to the group chat she shared with her friends, her real family, the ones who didn’t cage her.

“ Meet me at The Velvet Room. Now.” Lucy texted in the group chat.

Her message was short, sharp, no explanation needed. Although her friends knew her well enough to understand and within minutes, replies poured in.

“Say less. Already grabbing the keys.” Maya replied

“On my way. Don’t start the fun without me.” Selene added

“Are you sure, Lu? I heard Vince has eyes everywhere tonight, and you know how he gets” Kira answered with a bit of caution in her tone.

“Well I don’t care anymore because I’m not his prisoner, he can do what the hell he wants” Lucy replied to Kira’s comment boldly as they all concluded to meet at the Velvet Room.

Tucking the phone into her pocket, Lucy flagged down a black cab. She slid in, her eyes burning with defiance. “The Velvet Room,” she told the driver, her tone leaving no room for hesitation.

As the city rushed by outside the window, blurs of gold light and concrete shadows passed by the window, her thoughts tangled. Guilt whispered at the edge of her mind. She had seen Adrian’s trembling fist, Vince’s calculating eyes, Matteo’s mocking grin, Damian’s unreadable smirk. A part of her wanted to cry, to run back and beg them to see her as she wanted to be seen. But another part, louder and stronger, kept whispering: “You are not a child anymore. You are not a bird in their cage.”

By the time the cab pulled up to the club, the Velvet Room was already pulsing with life. The line outside stretched long, men in sharp suits and women draped in silk waiting to be let in. The bass thumped faintly through the ground, vibrating into her bones.

Lucy stepped out, head held high. She wasn’t just a little sister tonight, she was fire in human form.

Her friends were already there. Maya, bold and wild with her crimson hair; Selene, cool and dark as midnight; and Kira, cautious but loyal to the end. The three of them lit up as Lucy approached.

“Girl,” Maya whistled, looping her arm through Lucy’s, “you look like you’re ready to burn the world down.”

“Maybe I am,” Lucy muttered, but there was a spark in her eyes that made her friends grin.

Knowing her status, Lucy and her friends swept past the line and into the club. The Velvet Room was a different world, lights flashing in hues of violet and gold, smoke curling in the air, the scent of expensive liquor mixing with perfume and sweat. Music thundered through the speakers, a heavy bass that shook the walls.

Lucy let the sound drown her, let it swallow all the voices of her brothers that echoed in her head. Here, she wasn’t the little sister. Here, no one told her who she could or couldn’t be.

Drinks were pressed into their hands, laughter spilled between them, bodies moved in sync with the music. Lucy’s anger loosened in the rhythm of it all. For the first time in what felt like years, she was free, wild, unbound and untouchable.

But freedom was a dangerous thing.

Because as Lucy spun on the dance floor, her hair whipping in the flashing lights, she didn’t notice the pair of eyes watching her from the shadows of the balcony above. A tall figure, dressed in black, a cigarette glowing faintly between his fingers. He leaned on the railing, a smirk playing at his lips as he studied her every move.

He exhaled smoke, murmuring to himself, “So this is the little sister they’ve been hiding.”

And with that, he flicked the cigarette away and disappeared into the dark, leaving only the ember glowing on the floor.

Lucy, oblivious, laughed with her friends as the night pressed on, unaware that her defiance had not just shaken her brothers, but drawn the gaze of enemies who had been waiting for this very moment.

Lucy felt the music in her bones, thrumming through her veins like lightning. For the first time in her life, her laughter wasn’t hushed or interrupted, it was free, sharp and reckless, rising above the bass as she threw her head back.

Maya pulled her onto the dance floor, twirling her with a devilish grin. Selene raised her glass in a silent toast before downing it in one go, while Kira lingered close to Lucy’s side, her eyes darting around with suspicion.

“Relax,” Lucy told her over the pounding music, gripping her hand. “Tonight, there’s no Vince, no Adrian, no rules. Just us.”

Kira tried to smile, but her unease lingered. “Yeah, but your brothers aren’t the only ones who own this city, Lu. You know people talk.”

Lucy ignored the warning, turning toward the crowd. Her body moved with the rhythm, a language she had never been allowed to speak under the cold ceilings of her family’s mansion. The sweat, the flashing lights, the strangers cheering around her it was chaotic, alive, intoxicating.

Every glance she caught from men across the dance floor only fueled her fire. Normally, she would have ducked her head, felt the weight of her brothers’ disapproving gazes looming over her, but tonight….tonight she held their stares and smiled like she belonged to herself.

Maya leaned in close, shouting over the music, “This is the Lucy I’ve been waiting to see! No cage, no chains, just you.”

Lucy’s chest warmed at the words. Yes, she thought. This is me. This is the woman they refuse to see.

Drinks kept flowing. Shots lined the table where they gathered between dances, glasses clinking, laughter spilling without restraint. At one point, Selene climbed onto the edge of the booth, arms stretched wide, daring the world to look at her, and Lucy cheered her on until her throat was raw.

But even in the haze of freedom, shadows lingered.

Twice, Lucy thought she saw a man at the far end of the bar watching her too closely. The first time, she dismissed it as paranoia. The second time, she told herself it was just another stranger drawn to the sight of four women laughing louder than the music itself.

She didn’t notice when that same stranger whispered something into his phone before slipping toward the back exit.

Instead, she let Maya drag her back onto the dance floor. Their arms wrapped around each other, voices screaming lyrics into the heavy air, hair plastered to their skin with sweat. Lucy’s heart raced, not with fear, but with the intoxicating rush of living without permission.

For a moment, she forgot the way Vince’s voice had cut through her earlier, or the way Adrian’s fist had rattled the table, or the look in Matteo’s mocking eyes. Even Damian’s cold laughter faded into nothing.

She was alive.

Yet outside, the city was shifting. Two black cars slowed to a crawl near the club entrance. Men stepped out, dressed in dark suits, their presence commanding without a word. They didn’t wait in line. They didn’t need to.